Search form

Do you download because its free or....

do you actually use the stuff you download. I ask because I was going through an old hard drive and found about a hundred old kits I downloaded years ago - like 7 or 8 years ago. I don't think I actually ever used any of the stuff. I can tell that some of it is pretty rudimentary and really not my style anymore, but I really hate to just delete it. It kind of seems disrespectful to the budding designers I downloaded this stuff from. Mind you, a lot of the kits didn't come with any TOU documents or names on the files so I can tell where they came from. I'm more picky about what I download now and only download it if/when I'm going to use it. I guess I'm over my hoarding stage and just want to actually get some things done instead of spending my time unzipping and organizing files.

I am a hoarder! When I started last year I pretty much downloaded about everything I could find and especially the free stuff! And another thing I am finding is that when I try to use stuff from different kits the colors are off and cannot be used together. Of course, I have a lot that I paid for too - was pretty much out of control. Have only used the stuff I have gotten on a few sites for challenges though. Now going back I am deleting a lot of stuff, especially what I got free. Now that I know more about digi-scrapping and how to do layouts I am finding that when I get to working on an album I would like to use one kit for an occasion. Mini kits just don't have enough to do that. There are some elements that I want in my kits and when these are limited I feel I will not have enough variety for a whole album. So as I am sorting and reviewing what I have I am becoming much more particular as to what I am going to keep and what I now download. I have come to really like the blog trains, mega kits, some site's per piece designer "collab" that I know will be from the same palette and the one's from my favorite designers. I have to become far more particular as I finally decided in December that I was a bit out of control. I have learned through the months that even if it is free I just don't necessarily have to have it!

I am in the same boat...I have a ton of freebies from several years ago. I started cleaning up my hard drive because I am running out of room so I went through those freebie folders. I ended up deleting a lot because I know I will never use it. Some of it was what I put in an "iffy" folder that I moved onto an external hard drive...these were items that I might use and didn't want to totally lose but I didn't see an immediate use for them so I moved them to free up space. The other thing I did was take individual files from kits that I might have use for and put all of these things into folders like "alphas" "elements" "papers" "ephemera" and deleted the rest of the kit that I wouldn't use. In these cases, I renamed files so I had the designer info in the file names.

I'm transitioning to being more picky. At first I downloaded anything I could get my hands on. But now that I have a good stash of both quality freebies & purchased kits, I realize that I will never use some of those initial downloads, due to style, taste, size. For example, I downloaded a lot of "add ons" for purchaseable kits which had only a small handful of elements or papers. Without the full kit, I'll never use it!

It's sweet that you're thinking of being respectful to the budding designers, but like @Molly said...they'll never know! Besides, it's not fair to you to take up valuable HD space for something you don't really want to use anymore!

I too... use to download a lot more in a month probably than I do in a year now. I only download what I absolutely love and think I will use.

I have been going through my stash too, and I have to say with the exception of a few designers that were as great back then as they are now (Ie: Shabby Princess, who has had her own IRL line with BoBunny along with digi stuff for years, now) I have been using the delete button a lot!!! I've also started checking out kits right away I download and if up close I don't think I'd really use it or appreciate the quality, I'll delete it right away. No sense taking up that space for 6 months and going through it again later a second time.

The only really sad thing is that some of the things I PAID for back then and the prices I PAID for them (I name my paid files at the end of the file name [Pd$1.50] ) kind of make me mad how I really paid too much... LoL as I've learned design wise those things weren't as good quality wise as they looked in their tiny previews. It truly makes me be very careful about what I buy now. And if they don't have at least a couple good samples (not just ONE cluster made by a CTM, not them) for Free that I can really see about the quality, stray pixels, dimensions, etc. then I just don't buy from them. If I don't know their work, the risk is too great, with budgets so tight due to the economy... and it's not like you can return it to Target and get your money back.

@ Phillippa: I'm in the same boat... I just don't have a lot of time to really "clean house" right now, though (wish I did), but when I do finally get to it I have a feeling I will be freeing up a lot of room on my external hard drive! My alpha collection is large, for example, and I find I don't tend to use them (why, I don't know) - despite this I always find myself downloading new alphas because they look so darn cute! LOL Yet, when it comes time to do a layout, I find myself just typing something up randomly for a title & messing with it so it stands out from the journaling... Crazy, eh?

In the beginning I downloaded whatever I could because I wanted to see if I even liked digiscrapping... I needed stuff to work with & didn't want to invest in a hobby that I wasn't sure I'd like (I had never done scrapbooking, so all this was new to me). Eventually I bought a few things that I really liked (kits & what not). My biggest problem is a lot of the stuff I downloaded early on I never unzipped or checked to make sure they downloaded properly - found a lot of the downloads were corrupt & I was so bummed. Now I check everything I download just after it finishes downloading to make sure that never happens to me again. And, yes, I'm trying to be more selective about what I download so I don't fill up my external hard drive. LOL

@Janet: I like the trains & collabs for that same reason, too. It's really helpful.

I download mostly papers. You can always use papers is my motto Most of the time there will ne a paper with a lovely pattern or color. I keep that and delete what I know I will never use. Like I am not a flowery person. I know a lot of people can't scrap without them, I get irritated by them they clutter my lay-out To me an embellishment needs to be functional. This is a heritage from my school days. When I just started with digital scrapbooking, a year ago, I struggled and sometimes I still do, with buttons. What does a button do on a lay-out I would ask myself, it doesn't have a function at all and I could not bring myself to use it. Like an arrow, that points at something, that's obviously a function, but buttons and random flowers everywhere? I was seriously doubting if digi scrap was for me untill I came across designers like One Little Bird and Paislee and Che Yang who didn't use any flowers or buttons out of the blue and I realized I could develop my own style. If I didn't want to use buttons and/or flowers I didn't have to. It was such a relief not having to try so hard to fit in.

I have a lay out in the gallery called Goal Board, the original template came with lots of embellishments of flowers everywhere. I looked at what others did and they all used that cue. I decided I would give one corner a flower cluster. It took me 2 days before I was satisfied with how it looked. I drove myself crazy with removing and replacing it! So no flowers, buttons, pins and needles etc for me.

Now patterns and papers on the other hand I love to stash up on. I can always use them to make journal cards for my PL, another addiction Not every designer is good at making papers AND elements so I don't feel bad if I delete what I can not use after I downloaded them, that way my stash stays relevant.

I used to download everything I saw, but now it's just what I think I will use or what has a particular beauty or uniqueness to it. I bought ACDSee for organizing a couple of years ago and that really helped me clear out a lot of the junk I was holding on to.

I do go through my stash every couple of months to declutter so it doesn't get out of hand. I think I'm going to start putting stuff I download into a folder with the date on it, and like the junk in my house, if I don't use it within a couple of months, then it gets deleted. No more finding a whack of files I don't know where I got them or who made them. "Use it or lose it" is going to be my new motto.

Christine, I LOVE what you say here! Part of it I suppose is because I agree with you as far as flowers go although I always include them when I design something because scrappers seem to feel like a kit is not a kit without them.

Confession of a former hoarder: My year old computer is FULL and my external hard drives are getting there... I am more picky than I used to be, but there are some designers I simply cannot pass up. Even if I don't see any use for a particular freebie, if its from a favorite designer, I MUST HAVE IT.

What I like to do is clear out my hard drive every 2-3 months completely. I back everything up on an external hard drive and then I start from scratch. If I really want something I know I already have...I just plugin the external hard drive and get it! But more often than not I find myself not doing that very often and only download stuff I know I will use immediately within a 2-3 month period.

I only download the design that I like and for me colors important too! I usually download everything in pastel colors hahaha...
It's definitely going to ruin my hard disk if I download everything... T.T

When I first started, I downloaded everything I liked and had huge folders of stuff. Then I started designing my own stuff and got rid of a huge amount. Now I only download CU stuff. I haven't used any yet, but I have plans!!

Well I'm new to all this. It all started when I was in need of scrapbook paper for some bookmarks I was making, to put in some valentine gift bags for a local nursing home. I purchased some at a local craft store. When I got it home and was looking at it in a different light I was not happy with the color, it didn't really go with the cardstock I had. I don't know what made me think to search for free printable scrapbook paper, but I was astonished to find soooo many on line that I could just print out myself, and for free! So ever since I have been downloading like crazy. I am addicted I think lol. I don't think I'll ever use most of what I've hoarded, but can't help myself. Currently I'm working on some birdhouse gift boxes for easter for the same nursing home residents. I found the template on line, for free, and thought they would make great little easter gifts. I'm going to put a little nest inside with some choc. easter eggs. Anyway, thanks for the freebies! Love your site!

I have downloaded (or hoarded) lots and lots and lots... and then I realized all that downloading and then saving/filing/organizing everything was keeping me from actually scrapbooking! It took me quite awhile to stop downloading every bit and piece that I thought I "might use in the future", but I'm getting there now. I read an article a while ago (there is a link somewhere here in the forum, I just can't find it anymore) on downloading behavior, and it left the reader with a really good tip that I have taken by heart: If you are not willing to PAY for whatever you are downloading, then it is not good enough to actually download! Right now, I only download things I am really excited about (and that I would gladly pay for if it wasn't a freebie) and templates from Pixelscrapper to make my own freebies - to give back a little.

A few weeks ago I decided to go through all my freebies and dump everything I downloaded that I know I am not going to use anyway: I deleted almost half! And it felt like a liberation... if that makes sense to anyone...

when i first started out i was downloading everything i could find. now I just download what I know I will or might use. I don't bother with things I know I will never use. Also, after I've downloaded something I go through it (i.e. a kit) and get rid of anything I know I will never use. Everyone has a style and I know what mine is/isn't.

Hi,
I'm a hoarder too ....
as I'm quite new to digiscrap and that my main creation is my wedding album, I download all I can. I hope to find more inspiration when having much stuff to deal with later. As I didn't practice a lot digiscrap, I think I need materials to try many things. Youthful mistake ? .... I keep all because I may need them later ... hm, hmmmm .... Sometimes, only one element may really interest me, but then all is downloaded ... and surely I will need soon to revise my file system.

I also notice that new-born to digiscrap are downloading or downloaded all they can... I really think it's a youthful mistake, and that we need time and experience to find our own style to know what to donwload and what to let go ...

I'm a hoarder, too, Janet! So glad it's not just me. I think, "But I may have a use for a piece in kit that someday!" I'm trying to be a little pickier now and only download what I really love. But I feel like I spend more time downloading, unzipping, and organizing than actually scrapping!

@Andrea You brought up the exact point, sometimes I DO spend more time with the file and organization than I have with the actual scrapping. My suggestion to all those download hoarders is to be picky from the beginning! The scrapping is way more fun than the organizing!

Reading all your comments and being a hoarder too - my excuse is that I have only been in the scrapbook world a couple of weeks - a big thanks to everybody for their advice. It's so appreciated! Maybe we should have an anonymous "international digiscrapper hoarder group" online once a week lol....

Interesting thread. Some of you say you spend more time downloading and organizing than scrapping. I think I'm guilty of designing assets/kits, etc more than scrapbooking. Lol. I'm soooo behind on personal scrapbooking. However, I've got goals to get more personal scrapping done. This site is so inspiring and motivating!

I've decided I'm going to try and do at least one layout with each kit/paper pack that I download from now on (there's no way I could get caught up with all the one's I've already downloaded). I tend to not do more than one layout with each kit as it is, so if I do one layout, I can then remove it from my hard drive and not feel guilty about not using it. The only time I use a kit on more than one page is if I'm doing a themed album or brag book. I'm very fickle when it comes to scrapbooking...

Anyone interested in a "no downloading" challenge? For a day, a week, or longer, to make X number of layouts? We could perhaps offer a DC incentive if you promise not to download anything and scrap instead...

Anyone interested in a "no downloading" challenge? For a day, a week, or longer, to make X number of layouts? We could perhaps offer a DC incentive if you promise not to download anything and scrap instead...

I could do the "make x number of layouts", but if I do the no downloading, then I won't be able to download anything from here...